Around 2000, futurism was popular. Highly paid grifters would give keynote speeches about what was around the corner: the convergence of gadgets, the rise of online trading, the growing importance of China.
I don't think anyone foresaw the establishment of a major new religion, much less its rise to dominance among the West's elite in just seven years.
Now it has arrived.
The Four Olds are being pulled down: monuments, freedom, Christianity and white plebs.
The new religion still has no consistent name, and that is a problem. 'Critical Theory' is too clumsy and dull for any self-respecting cult and 'Cultural Marxism' lacks the sting required by its enemies. It is the Great Awokening, it is Branch Covidian. It is both corporate and faux-socialist.
The New Left is a sharp departure from the Old Left. The focus on unionism and labour rights is gone. Progressive taxation is an afterthought, as demonstrated by the financial and moral support from Woke Capital. There is no strong anti-war element. There is no grand push for public spending on infrastructure or education aside from hiring additional diversity officers. The old ideal of racial and sex equality is now racist and sexist, and also transphobic.
The new religion that has sprouted in the hearts of young leftists instead obsesses over microaggressions, disparate impact, 'equity', a tiny handful of police shootings of unarmed blacks, gender transition for children, a rape epidemic on campus (though the Believe All Women/Me Too hysteria has faded for now), and eliminating whiteness while celebrating blackness.
The underlying moral code of Wokeness seems to be equality, or equity if you like. This is the best I can break down the new philosophy:
1. All races (which don't really exist), genders, abilities and so on are equal except that blacks and women are superior to whites and men.
2. Real-world outcomes for these groups are not equal, i.e. educational attainment, income, wealth, prominence in various professions and recognition in the arts and sciences (sport is rarely mentioned).
3. This is entirely caused by conscious or unconscious bias on the part of privileged groups.
4. Right-minded people - underprivileged categories and their allies - must march and raise a racket until this system of oppression is overturned.
It matters not if property is destroyed because they're talking about black bodies being literally murdered, and anyway business owners are participating in the capitalist system of oppression and are therefore committing violence against those who burn down their shops.
Violence is also acceptable because hateful words are violence against underprivileged groups and need to be stopped. As with any religion, debate regarding key shibboleths is not acceptable.
Some people confuse this with Marxism. It is not. Marxists saw the class struggle as being fought between the working class and capitalists. The Woke see the conflict as one fought between the privileged and underprivileged groups as described above.
Some SJWs say they are 'anti-capitalist' or 'trained in Marxism,' but there's a difference between blathering cool-sounding nonsense and actually socializing Apple. Watch them do one but not the other.
Do you seriously think the Democrats will even get Big Tech to pay their fair share of tax?
A working-class white man is Bad because he still has privilege, while a wealthy black athlete remains oppressed by The Man. As for white women, they seem to have slipped down the totem pole of late. No doubt these categories will continue to shift with victimhood power struggles.
There is currently an effort to reclassify blue-collar workers with expensive trucks/utes as bourgeois, while penniless, heavily indebted PhDs from wealthy backgrounds will become proletariat.
Don't be fooled by vague promises of redistribution or reparations. While this may occur, billionaires and big business are quite safe. Only small business owners and ordinary taxpayers will be targeted plus printing machine go brrr. It's mostly about control over society, not control over the means of production.
What the hell do we produce anymore, anyway?
The greatest sin for the new religion is to suggest that all people are not equal and that real sex and race differences exist. Hence dead-naming a trans person is a cancellable (ex-communicable) offence. Even conducting research into racial differences in disease and medical treatment will get you into trouble if you suggest there may be genetic factors involved.
It is a sin to express the faintest disquiet about the tenets of Woke, i.e. suggesting that this trans business might have gone a bit too far or that the causes of black disadvantage may be more complex than just racism.
In 2020, Covidian thought was incorporated into the religion. Wearing a mask became the new hijab. Like the Gospels, we must Believe the Science even when it contradicts itself. Lockdowns are the new fasts to purify our souls; economic and mental devastation the new sacrifice upon the altar to mollify angry gods.
An earlier tenet of the religion was climate alarmism. As Covid retreats, expect to see the justifications for sacrifice to switch back to this again. Environmentalism is not a big part of Woke aside from those aspects that lead to enhanced social control (as with Covid): global warming, plastic bags and disposable straws. Litter, air pollution and biodiversity are an afterthought if they are considered at all.
Whether it's for global warming or Black Lives, the Woke are always certain that it is imperative to block traffic. Along with kneeling and chanting, this appears to have become a rite. Bystanders must cooperate/participate, just as foreigners can't eat in public during the Saudi Ramadan. Interrupting the rite by driving around the protesters, booing, or refusing to raise a fist in solidarity will provoke fanatical rage just as surely as would skolling a VB in downtown Riyadh.
No doubt new events will continue to be incorporated into Woke beliefs. Perhaps we are seeing the vicissitudes of a new religion standardizing its theology. Vegetarianism may become more prominent but more as a purity ritual than out of concern for animal rights. Group marriage will likely come along at some point. Keep an eye on humanities departments and The Guardian for more.
In fact, this rapid change may be a feature of the new religion. Just as the Reformation could not occur without the printing press, Woke needs social media in order for its adherents to quickly download and install the latest campaigns, talking points and terminology in order to expose those who are insufficiently up to date. 'Woke' seems to mean in part, 'aware of the latest moral trends'.
Contradicting current Woke fashion is not treated as mistaken or misguided, i.e. TERFs who have fallen behind on gender theology or conservatives who accidentally use a previously polite term for blacks. Rather, such sins are assumed to be in bad faith and motivated by malice. The fact that each example was Leftist doctrine some years ago makes no difference.
This marks a departure from the old Left/Right divide. Economic issues were treated as political questions, sometimes heated ones, but no more than that. On the other hand, suggesting that there is no such thing as white privilege or that there are two biological sexes is seen as something akin to heresy, as well as a violent and dangerous act.
A further religious theme: white people are born with the original sin of the crimes of their ancestors - crimes for which they continue to benefit. All white people are complicit.
The path to salvation is to admit our sins, our participation in white supremacy, and kneel down before those we have wronged. However, unlike other religions, no amount of apology and no number of Hail Marys will ever get you right with God.
It's like 1930s Irish Catholicism without the weekly easing of guilt through Confession. Constant self-policing, self-criticism and most importantly, self-hatred are required and there's no cookie at the end.
This is a religion for WEIRD people. No others take pleasure in self-abnegation like we do.
Some point to the Jewish roots of the religion by way of Cultural Marxism. Like Christianity, it is a religion inspired by Jewish thinking but adopted by gentile whites. Those pulling down statues, breaking windows, cancelling heretics and interrupting campus presentations are whiter than the general population. A disproportionate number of them seem to have German ancestry but I'm not sure what to make of that.
BLM, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, Saira Rao, Ilhan Omar, Waleed Ali and all the rest only enjoy their prominent positions because of white people. We fund their organizations, read their books, watch them on the telly, elect them and invite them into our homes to berate us.
If white people disappeared tomorrow, BLM and the entire Woke industry would die. Blacks aren't going to buy Ta-Nehisi's books in sufficient numbers for him to earn a crust. Koreans aren't going to pay Saira a few thousand bucks to yell at them. Mexicans aren't going to vote for Ilhan. Back in Iran, Waleed Ali would have no career opportunities in critiquing toxic Persianity.
While open borders is a key doctrine of Woke, limiting immigration will not prevent Woke and must be understood as a separate issue. In fact, most immigrants are the opposite of Woke and always will be. It is not an ideology that most non-WEIRD people can assimilate to, and nor should they.
Don't be fooled by prominent, apparently Woke coloured people in the movement, nor the pantomime of putting them out front to give prominence to marginalized voices. Woke is whiter than a Klan rally. Can't blame a few normal people for cashing in, just like Candace Owens et al do on the other side.
Woke is also a phenomenon of the middle and upper classes. Working-class whites are its enemy. When they talk about 'exterminating whiteness', they mean exterminating poor whites, not childless white city girls with Masters degrees in Whiteness Studies who work for a non-profit.
This gives a hint as to why big business is onboard. Elite whites have disposable income so capitalists can market feel-good products using their religious zealotry, like Target selling psychedelic t-shirts in the 1970s. Gillette is the Woke razor! Apple is the Woke phone! Pepsi is the Woke lolly water! If it's a Woke arse you're wiping, use only culturally sensitive AOC TissueTM!
There are conspiracy theories that Woke capital might be encouraging the new religion to detract attention from wages, offshoring and robotification. It sounds perfect but unfortunately lacks any evidence. [Edit: @EyeballFlaming points to this piece of evidence. It's something.]
Woke is so unconcerned about war that Neocons have been drifting over to the Dems of late, frustrated with Trump's near-pacifism. US and EU foreign policies have been pushing Woke values such as gay rights and immigration for some time. One can imagine this morphing into crusades to forcibly spread these values if the Neocon/business/Woke alliance firms sufficiently.
As for politicians, some are genuinely Woke or try to be without understanding all the critical theology. Most jump on the bandwagon. The idea that Hairy Legs Joe is in any way Woke, is ridiculous. I am quite sure he doesn't understand a word of it and Woke talking points in his speeches and tweets are inserted by staffers.
Christians may think their church is merging with Woke, but this is just a ploy like Christian missionaries co-opting local deities as saints. Woke hates Christianity and seeks to destroy it. When this process is complete, Woke churchgoers will still think themselves Christians without noticing the switch.
There are many more theological connections between the two religions but I'll let you connect the dots.
A difference is that enthusiastic conversion is mandatory. To not participate is 'white silence'. You must actively fight the 'isms' otherwise you are an 'ist'.
Woke is a proselytizing religion. This mostly occurs in school, universities and workplace harassment and diversity training. However, there are boundaries. Just as Hinduism is limited to Desis, Woke pertains only to WEIRD whites. I will say more about this next week.
The Woke constantly signal to other whites, kind of like IFF. Every conversation will be sprinkled with Orange Man Bad, War on Women, Black Lives Matter, Marriage Equality etc. With a positive response, there will be a conversation of furious agreement in which each party will simultaneously police whether their interlocutor is sufficiently pure and up-to-date. A mistake or counter-signal will trigger an angry, emotional response. I've seen this.
Like a cult, the ideology must dominate all areas of human activity. The groceries must be Woke. The bookshelf must be Woke. Sports activities must be Woke. Films, music, exercise equipment and cars must be Woke. Anything not Woke is, by definition, evil. It must be Awoken or destroyed. Or both.
People need religion. With the decline of Christianity and secular ideologies like Marxism, the West was crying out for a new belief system. The Wokists don't know that's what it is. Cult members never know they are in a cult.
New religions often become popular during a time of crisis or in the decline of an Empire. Perhaps that is what we are seeing. If it takes root, it may be with us for centuries to come.